Entries tagged with: BAMNextWave

"The first time I said 'New York,' I got a big cheer," remarked a chatty Jeff Tweedy last night (9/23) at BAM's Howard Gillman Opera House. "The second time I did it...you all felt a bit silly, didn't you? Shall we try it again?" A receptive and vocal crowd and game performer made for an enjoyable night as Jeff and son Spencer made their NYC debut as Tweedy who just released their first album. The Tweedy set came first, complete with Lucius' Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig on backing vocals, and then Jeff stayed out for a long set of songs from throughout his career, plus a lot of funny crowd interactions. For the finale, the Tweedy band came back out for a few covers and ended with "California Stars" from Wilco & Billy Bragg's Mermaid Avenue with Nels Cline coming out to join them. Pictures, setlist and BAM's archived video stream are all in this post.

While we already knew that "Nonesuch Records at BAM" and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus / Bryce Dessner collaboration (though details on that one were TBA) were going to be part of the 2014 Next Wave Festival, the full line-up of programming has just been announced. BAM Next Wave runs from September 9 through December 20, featuring 30 theater, music, dance, and film productions. 2014 Next Wave Festival subscriptions and single tickets to BAM Fisher presentations go on sale June 23 to the general public (June 16 to friends of BAM). Single tickets for all other Next Wave engagements go on sale Aug 18 (Aug 11 for Friends of BAM).

Among the non-Nonesuch music events, the highlight is probably Exposed: Songs for Unseen Warhol Films which happens at Howard Gilman Opera House on November 6 - 8. Presented by The Andy Warhol Museum (which turns 20 this year) and Dean Wareham, the events comprise 15 never-before-seen films captured by Andy Warhol between 1963 and 1968 on his original 16mm Bolex camera, scored (and performed live) by Bradford Cox, Eleanor Friedberger, Martin Rev, Tom Verlaine and Wareham.

In addition to his three nights with Steve Reich, Philip Glass will also be performing The Complete Piano Etudes at two concerts at Howard Gilman Opera House on Dec 5 & 6.

There's also the world premiere of Black Mountain Songs featuring music by Bryce Dessner, Tim Hecker, John King, Nico Muhly, Richard Reed Parry, Caroline Shaw, and Aleksandra Vrebalov as performed by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. That happens Nov 20 - 22 at BAM Harvey Theatre. You may have gone to a preview of that earlier this month.

Part of the music-theatre program is the US premiere of Shakespeare's Sonnets, "a contemporary take on 25 specially chosen sonnets from Shakespeare's cannon" with a score by Rufus Wainwright and direction by Robert Wilson. Performances happen October 7 - 11 at Howard Gilman Opera House, and Wilson and Wainright will discuss the project on October 8 at BAM Fisher (Hillman Studio).

There is, of course, lots more. A brief rundown of all BAM Next Wave Festival 2014 programming is below...

A. It happens to be the one album where I finished all the songs before I went in to record. I wrote them when I had just moved to Warner to work in A&R. I took an office job and I was there every day, and I was writing these songs. After a while I realized, "This is nostalgia, pure and simple: I'm writing about the stuff that I miss about Europe." I wasn't writing to the album's title; I gave it the title afterward, and what it meant was: "Here we are in the height of the cold war; how did we get here?" This album seems to be about how we got there, looking back to the Versailles Treaty [signed in France in 1919]. - [NY Times]

Former Velvet Underground member John Cale played three shows at BAM in the last week as part of the Academy's Next Wave Festival. The first was a star-studded tribute to onetime VU singer Nico on January 16 featuring the vocal talents of Greg Dulli, Kim Gordon, Sharon Van Etten, Peaches, The Magnetic Fields, Joan as Policewoman, Meshell Ndegeocello and more.

Then on Friday and Saturday (1/18, 1/19) Cale collaborated with the Wordless Music Orchestra to perform his 1973 album, Paris 1919, in full, plus other songs from throughout his long musical career. Pictures from Friday's performance are in this post.

Part of BAM's Next Wave Festival, Bang on a Can co-founder Michael Gordon's Timber makes its New York premiere this weekend, running tonight through Saturday (12/13 - 12/15) at the Fishman Space. As the title suggests, there's a lot of wood involved in this percussive piece:

Timber is scored for six amplified wooden 2x4s, cut into different sizes, giving each one a slightly different pitch. Called "simantras", these percussion instruments, with origins in the Eastern Orthodox Church, were first used in classical music by composer Iannis Xenakis. Far from a gimmick, the custom instrumentation allows Gordon to create the impression that the sound is traveling around and through the room by subtly shifting the accent of sound from one player to another. The result is a meditation on sound and rhythm, bringing the physicality, endurance and technique of percussion performance to a new level.

Mantra Percussion ensemble will be bringing Timber to life at the Next Wave fest performances and you can watch video of them in action below. Performances are at 7:30 PM and tickets are still available.

The Timber CD was released last year (in a wooden box, of course), and next year will see the release of a remix album, featuring remodels by the likes of Antipop Consortium, Oneohtrix Point Never, Johann Johannson, Fennesz and Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier whose version we have the premiere of in this very post. You can download it above or stream it below, along with the Timber video.

John Cale has signed to Domino imprint Double Six who will release his new album Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood on October 1. The former Velvet Underground member made the album at his own studio in LA, "experimenting with MPCs, pounding fists onto pianos, manipulating glitches and lots of signature viola drone while patiently waiting for songs to reveal themselves." Danger Mouse helped out on the album's opening track, "Let Me Talk 2 U." No songs have been released from Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood (what a title!) but the tracklist is below.

Cale has a busy year ahead. In addition to the new album, he's readying to works for the BAM Next Wave Festival, both of which premiere in January 2013. Life Along the Borderline: A Tribute to Nico is making it's world premiere at BAM on January 16; and the performances of his 1973 album Paris 1919 with the 20-piece Wordless Music Orchestra happen January 18 and 19. Season tickets for BAM Next Wave go on sale to Friends of BAM starting June 11 with individual tickets to shows beginning August 6. Ticket info is here.